Pool tests find unsafe waters
Three out of every four commercial swimming pools in Spokane County have been cited for critical health code violations since 2003, and many of those pools were allowed to reopen before regulators could re-inspect them.
Documents maintained by the Spokane County Health District and made available to The Spokesman-Review under a public records request, show inspectors found 550 critical violations between January 2003 and June of this year at 167 of the region’s 222 commercial pools and spas. In all, 69 percent of those related to water quality issues, while the others ranged from inoperable safety equipment to inadequate emergency gear.
The findings reveal an alarming number of violations, including repeat offenses, despite the health district’s contention that cooperative enforcement yields the best results.
“Our program is really centered around trying to educate and work with the operator,” said Steve Main, the aquatics technical adviser for the health district. “Many of our pools are run by good operators. It’s very easy for even a really good operator to run a pool with a good chlorine reading, (and have) some circumstance change that when we do our inspection.”
Inspectors always return within a month to see if the violations are corrected, but allow pools to reopen with a simple phone call from the operator assuring the health district that the problems have been fixed, Main said.
That’s little comfort to many, including those most familiar with pool maintenance.
“I have a 13-year-old daughter and I don’t allow her to go into commercial pools and spas that often, unless I know the owner, because I just don’t want to take the chance,” said Ted Puryear, of Pool World.
He’s worked with swimming pools in Spokane for 17 years and said improvements have slowly been made since regulations were enacted in 1992.
Repeat problems
Though 24 Hour Fitness on Spokane’s South Hill prides itself on its cleanliness, even constant cleaning could not hide unsafe waters in the exercise facility’s pools and spas.
Of all the public aquatics facilities in Spokane County, none has failed more critical health inspections since January 2003 than 24 Hour Fitness.
Although the 24 Hour Fitness pool and spas at 5501 S. Regal had troubles in the past, a $20,000 upgrade to its spa systems has kept it from having problems since last December, said Chris Templeton, the regional facilities manager for Oz Fitness, which owns the 24 Hour Fitness franchises in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.
But the story was different a year ago.
Since October of 2003, the fitness center had received $900 in fines, as it earned one violation after another for poor water quality. On June 16, 2004, inspectors found no chlorine in the men’s spa and high levels of chlorine at 34 parts per million in the women’s spa. Inspectors told the fitness center to keep the spa closed until the right levels were reached.
When an inspector returned a month later, on July 16, they found chlorine in the men’s spa too low at 1.0 ppm and too high in the women’s spa at more than 40 ppm, well beyond the acceptable 10 ppm. The spa was ordered to be closed until workers at 24 Hour Fitness corrected the levels and called the health district with updated information when reopening.
But a month later, on Aug. 16, inspectors retested the chlorine in the women’s spa and found it was too high at 35.0 ppm, even though the spa had been reopened.
Underchlorination can put users at risk of giardia, E. coli and a variety of other illnesses. Overchlorination can cause respiratory problems, skin burns, rashes and eye irritation.
Health officials never removed the spas’ operating permit, instead relying on self-enforcement by 24 Hour Fitness to report when they had fixed the pool themselves.
And while the health club, with 19 critical violations, leads the list, it’s hardly alone. A similar situation unfolded at the Quality Inn at 8923 E. Mission in Spokane Valley.
On Feb. 20, 2004, an inspector found chlorine levels in the pool and spa to be too low. A re-inspection March 30 found too much chlorine.
Another re-inspection April 30 found chlorine at 0.2 ppm in the pool and spa and the pool water to be very cloudy. On the violation notice, the health inspector instructed the hotel to contact the health district with the chlorine and pH levels before the pool could open.
On May 17, though, an inspector found chlorine in the pool to be low at zero ppm. The health district took the uncommon step of suspending the hotel’s permit for using the pool and spa. On May 21, the permit was reinstated after the water tested normally.
Both 24 Hour Fitness and the Quality Inn are far from isolated examples: Scattered throughout the inspection reports are many examples of pools and spas being told to close but allowed to reopen based solely on test results relayed by phone from the same people who failed to keep the pools in compliance.
On Oct. 14, 2003, the Best Western Peppertree Inn in Liberty Lake had no chlorine in its spa. Workers at the hotel faxed in corrected spa levels later that day to re-open the pool, but when inspectors returned a month later, on Nov. 14, they found the spa still had no chlorine. They were again told to fax back correct readings and could re-open when they had.
Workers faxed the information back Nov. 21, reopened, and on Dec. 2, a re-inspection by health officials found the pool was back to code.
Ted Puryear remembers that incident because he was hired to fix it. The spa had relied on manual testing of water and adding chlorine on its own, but Puryear installed an automated chlorination system, which takes care of all disinfectant problems.
A lot of pool owners “realize in a hotel/motel environment where things change by the moment, you can’t do it manually,” he said. Automated systems may cost more, he said, but they use less chemicals and ensure safety no matter what happens to the pool.
A heavy swimmer load, unclean swimmers and even direct sunlight can alter the disinfection level of a pool, he said.
Health department concerns
Health Department public information manager Julie Graham expressed concern about water quality violations being indicative of pool safety problems.
Low or high chlorine readings at an inspection “doesn’t really give a picture of whether, by and large, our area pools and spas are safe,” Graham said. “Because those situations are a delicate chemical situation it might appear that they’re unsafe, when it’s just an issue that they’re reading at that moment that indicates they need to make a correction.”
Graham also expressed concern over the term “critical violations,” saying “it really doesn’t show the full picture of whether a pool is necessarily safe or not. Things that can be labeled a critical violation – most of them can be handled right on site and it’s a matter of adjusting the chemicals.”
But according to the Centers for Disease Control, if someone had been in the Quality Inn’s pool when the chlorine level was tested at zero ppm May 17, they would run the risk of illness. Beside giardia, which causes severe diarrhea, and E. coli, which can kill young children and the elderly and cause intestinal problems, the CDC has identified 13 other diseases one can get in disinfectant-free water.
“The bottom line is that the pool should be maintained 24 hours a day, seven days a week for maximum safety for the consumer,” Puryear said.
Regardless, operators have an incentive to keep their pools and spas clean and safe, Graham said.
“Working with them seems to be a really great way for them to maintain the safety of their pool and for us not to go back repeatedly, because they have a vested financial investment in their pool,” Graham said. “The self-monitoring seems to be pretty effective.”
Swimmers and bathers must also look out for their own safety, as well, Main said. The CDC suggests swimmers not swallow water, stay out of the pool if they have diarrhea, and take a shower before entering the pool. Parents are also urged to keep their eye on children in the pool and to take them to the restroom regularly.
“We all share in the responsibility for user safety,” Main said.
Regular inspections
All public pools and spas in Spokane are required to submit to inspections and must have operating permits.
According to the records, inspections based on customer complaints were rare, but officials said they investigate all calls.
“The public is certainly welcome to call us at any time if they have a concern about a facility,” Main said.
Health Department inspectors go to the pools at least twice a year if the pools are open year-round and once if they are open for the summer only, Main said.
The inspectors run through a list of requirements, including barrier and latch heights for pool enclosures, as well as safety equipment requirements. The inspector and the pool operator often take a chemical reading together of the pool water to make sure their testing equipment is accurate, Main said. All pools are required to have emergency phones within one minute of the pool, and to have lifesaving devices to aid swimmers who are in trouble in the water.
Since 2003, there have been 88 safety equipment violations, half of which stemmed from a lack of a working emergency phone. Thirty-six percent involved a lack of a reaching device.
If a pool manager is present when a pool is ordered to shut down, the manager is often allowed to post a sign explaining that the pool is closed. If the health inspector is alone when the inspection occurs, the inspector posts a sign that says the Health Department closed the pool.
However, neither sign explains why a pool is closed. The only way for a person to find out the official reason for the closure is to file a public records request with the health district, which can take weeks and even months to be fulfilled.
Sometimes health inspections can have a positive response, said Templeton, the 24 Hour Fitness facilities manager.
After Oz Fitness purchased the 24 Hour Fitness franchises in Spokane, it made it a priority to correct the spa problems, Templeton said. From November 2004 forward, the fitness facility has used new chlorination devices and set up gates to the spas. They’ve received no new critical violations.
Calling the problem a “thorn in my side for six years,” Templeton said now that the problems are fixed, the difference is night and day.
“We don’t want a bad club as much as members don’t want to come into a bad club,” he said. “So we take every step possible to make sure we provide a clean environment.”